Donald Trump’s Second Term: Border Enforcement Is Back

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Donald Trump’s return to the Oval Office marked an immediate resumption of the active protection of America’s borders. Under the administration of former president Joe Biden, unprecedented levels of illegal aliens were allowed to enter the United States while federal authorities took legal action against states which attempted to secure the border themselves.

Trump’s first hours in office saw multiple executive actions aimed at reversing Biden’s legacy – including a resumption of the “Remain in Mexico” policy, which mandates asylum-seekers not enter the United States prior to the acceptance of their asylum application.

Texas governor Greg Abbott also took immediate action to secure his state’s border with Mexico – this time working in concert with the federal government (as opposed to in contravention of its orders). In fact, Trump ordered U.S. Marines to the border this week to assist Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents “with the mission to secure America.”

***

The US Marine Corps Is On The Border Assisting CBP With The Mission To Secure America

Promise Made –> Promise KEPT! pic.twitter.com/t384DH1FDl

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) January 24, 2025

***

The initial deployment consisted of 1,500 troops – including 500 U.S. Marines from Camp Pendleton. As many as 10,000 troops could eventually be deployed.

***

Texas installed more buoys in the Rio Grande today to stop illegal immigration.

I look forward to continuing to work closely with President Trump to secure the border.

AMERICA IS BACK! pic.twitter.com/PDIfCvYlEN

— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) January 20, 2025

***

Moments after Trump took office, migrants using Biden’s fast-track illegal immigration facilitation app – “CBP One” – received digital messages informing them their appointments to be “legally-illegally” admitted into the United States had been cancelled.

Attorneys for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) have already filed suit, noting that “prior to its elimination, the CBP One appointment process allowed 1,450 migrants per day to seek asylum.”

“As a result of the appointment process’s elimination, the right to seek asylum at the border no longer exists, no matter how great the danger faced by migrants, including families with children,” the lawsuit claimed.

While challenges to Trump’s elimination of the app are unlikely to prevail in court given other existing avenues for these “refugees” to be admitted in compliance with federal law, another executive order from the new administration isn’t on as solid a constitutional footing. Trump’s birthright citizenship ban is less likely to survive judicial review – but it is already dramatically altering the plans of many legal and illegal immigrants.

***

CBP One, the app that helped illegals get into the country, has been shut down. #bordercrisis pic.twitter.com/jlzc8W8Ft7

— Claudio Gutierrez (@Claudio4TX) January 20, 2025

***

The Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution – which guarantees citizenship for “all persons born or naturalized in the United States” – will be weighed against Trump’s executive order, which argued “the Fourteenth Amendment has always excluded from birthright citizenship persons who were born in the United States but not ‘subject to the jurisdiction thereof.'”

Per Trump’s order, “the privilege of United States citizenship does not automatically extend to persons born in the United States,” if that person’s “mother was unlawfully present in the United States and the father was not a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident” or if the “mother’s presence in the United States at the time of said person’s birth was lawful but temporary.”

It will be up to the U.S. Supreme Court to determine to whom the Fourteenth Amendment’s protections extend, but the policy shift has already prompted numerous non-citizens to plan their exit from the country – or forgo their planned immigration given their inability to drop an “anchor baby” to subvert the American immigration process.

***

Trump’s administration has taken other immediate and dramatic actions to prevent prevent further illegal immigration and remove illegal aliens already present in America.

“On Monday, to protect the security and safety of United States citizens, President Trump declared that a national emergency exists at the southern border of the United States,” acting defense secretary Robert Salesses noted. “The president directed me to take all appropriate action to support the activities of the secretary of homeland security in obtaining complete operational control of the southern border of the United States.”

At the same time federal Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Boston, Massachusetts arrested nearly 500 violent criminal illegal aliens known to local authorities. Among the arrested illegals are accused murderers and known MS-13 gang members.

***

NEW: Haitian man says “F*ck Trump, Biden forever,” gets arrested by ICE’s elite Boston unit to be deported.

The ultimate FAFO.

The arrest was part of a Boston raid on the “worst of the worst” criminal illegal aliens, as reported by @BillMelugin_.

“It's a frigid five degrees in… pic.twitter.com/83XgPMgNlt

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) January 23, 2025

***

“Today was a good day,” acting field office director Patricia Hyde told Fox News. “Today we took several significant public safety threats out of our communities. Unfortunately, a lot were released by sanctuary policies. But we’re here to tell the Commonwealth and the rest of the country that we’re going to find them, whether they’re released or not.”

Once they’re found, newly-minted executive policy dictates these illegal immigrants will be removed from the country without first receiving an asylum status hearing in a process known as “expedited removal.” The change makes good on Trump’s promise in his inaugural address to “end the practice of catch and release.”

“Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest,” acting Homeland Security secretary Benjamine Huffman said in a press statement. “The Trump Administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement, and instead trusts them to use common sense.”

“The gloves are off,” Trump border czar Tom Homan has said in multiple interviews since his appointment.

Trump’s designation of Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations (FTO) truly takes the “gloves off” of legal limitations on his ability to legally and physically attack cartel members and gang affiliates in the U.S. and abroad. This designation gives Trump the legal authority to employ America’s military to target cartel leadership in Mexico, something he didn’t rule out doing when asked by reporters.

Even if Trump never exercises his authority to eliminate cartel members, the designation means cartel members are unable to legally enter the United States – and that U.S. financial institutions are required to block transactions involving cartel assets. Those in the U.S. who do business with cartels can now be charged with stiff criminal penalties.

***

A comparison of illegal immigrant crossings under the four years of Trump and Biden’s first presidencies.

***

As the above graph illustrates, mass illegal immigration was facilitated by the Biden administration. Trump’s already-historic efforts to reverse this policy will greatly increase America’s national security and stability.

While Trump is pushing the boundaries of what can be done with executive power, it is up to Congress to take leadership to truly secure America’s borders.

The International Refugee Convention, codified into U.S. law in the Refugee Act of 1980, has facilitated the destabilizing mass migration that now threatens the national security of many of the convention’s signatory nations. It is no coincidence European signatories are also facing destabilizing mass migration, and begs the question of whether destabilizing the West was the end goal of the policy’s progenitors.

Conservative legislators must work diligently to put a bill on the president’s desk restoring America’s sovereignty by ending the supposed “right” of anyone in the world to due process in the American judicial system if they manage to illegally physically cross our borders.

Fail to do this and the next Democrat president will return to auctioning off our border wall, making appointments for illegal aliens to enter the country and refusing to deport violent criminals who harm the lawful residents of this nation. In the meantime though, Trump is putting his money where his mouth is and making good on his promises for a historic effort to staunch the flow of illegal immigrants into America.

FITSNews has covered the immigration issue extensively over the years. Count on us to continue doing so as Trump’s second term ramps up.

***

ABOUT THE AUTHOR …

(Via: Travis Bell)

Dylan Nolan is the director of special projects at FITSNews. He graduated from the Darla Moore school of business in 2021 with an accounting degree. Got a tip or story idea for Dylan? Email him here. You can also engage him socially @DNolan2000.

***

WANNA SOUND OFF?

Got something you’d like to say in response to one of our articles? Or an issue you’d like to address proactively? We have an open microphone policy! Submit your letter to the editor (or guest column) via email HERE. Got a tip for a story? CLICK HERE. Got a technical question or a glitch to report? CLICK HERE.